Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/224

before the brigade was forced back by overwhelming numbers. Just at this moment, the Seventeenth Iowa came to its relief, the tide was turned, and the Confederate army was soon in full retreat toward Vicksburg. Lieutenant-Colonel Sampson was in command of the regiment. On the 1st of June Major Banbury was promoted to colonel; Adjutant Marshall was promoted to major, and S. H. M. Byers to adjutant. The loss of the Fifth at Champion’s Hill was nineteen killed and seventy-five wounded. In the assault on Vicksburg May 22d, the regiment lost three killed and nineteen wounded. In the campaign under General Sherman, which followed the capture of Vicksburg, the Fifth assisted in driving Johnston’s army out of the State, after which it did garrison duty in Vicksburg for two months. The Fifth was attached to General Sherman’s army in the march to Chattanooga in November, and in the battles that were fought about that city and among the mountains the regiment bore an honorable part. Near Tunnel Hill, it fought bravely on the 25th of November, but toward night was overcome by superior numbers; Major Marshall, Adjutant Byers and many of the men, with the colors, were captured, while others escaped by running through a terrible fire of shot and shell. The regiment’s loss in killed, wounded and missing was one hundred and six. Colonel Banbury closed his official report of the part his regiment took in this campaign as follows:

“I can bear testimony to the manner in which my brave men have performed the hard labor, endured the severe privations of the campaign, especially during the last week of November, following upon the long fatiguing march over two hundred miles. They were up at midnight of the 23d, fortifying and maneuvering for battle all day the 24th, fighting desperately and under most unfavorable circumstances on the 25th, pursuing the enemy on the 26th and 27th, without rations or blankets, shivering around the campfires during the nights, marching through rain and mud during the days, and returning to camp twenty-two miles on the 28th. All this in the dead of winter and without a murmur.”